A NOTE FROM SHARON HART
VICE PRESIDENT, CONSERVATORY AND EDUCATION
The WYSH Project was founded in 2021 to give Worcester youth an opportunity to share their unique stories with their community in an original piece of theatre of their own creation. It was also a way to recruit more Worcester students into the conservatory. More than 40 students have participated in WYSH over the years, and most have reflected on the positive impact the program had on their lives.
This year, we welcomed 10 new students along with 2 returning students from last year. All of these students will all receive a scholarship to take a full year class in the conservatory, and we will tour a shorter version of the show to the Worcester High Schools in 2027. I continue to be so inspired by the young people who participate in WYSH and their courage to speak honestly to their community.
Sharon Hart
A NOTE FROM DIANA KHỔNG & MONICA RISI CO-FACILITATORS OF WYSH
Worcester’s youth are often depowered, and the city rarely turns to young people in their decision making. However, as youth, our WYSHers can see the material conditions of their schools, communities, and the city with clarity—and they’re often much braver than the rest of us to actually talk about it.
Over months, the students identified issues that they felt were most pressing and turned them into the narratives you now see on stage. They met with local organizers to hear about their fights against patriarchal violence and class-based oppression in the city. And they pushed one another over rehearsals and late-night writing sessions to politically imagine: how can these stories end? And how do we perform them with heart and soul so that our community can understand these ongoing contradictions too?
Whether it’s a consciousness-raising girls’ group who band together to combat misogyny or students who, at every turn, speak out against antiBlackness, classism, lesbophobia, and the violence experienced by our homeless neighbors—our students have created something so beautiful, playful, and uncompromisingly firm in the future that they want.
Listen and learn from these brilliant youth. And enjoy the show!
Diana Khổng
Monica Risi
Juliennys Aponte
Dakota Brooks
Janee Bonilla
Eliani Cardenas
WYSH PARTICIPANTS:
Fariha Kusi
Alex Mathews
Uche Mba
Laura Medina
SCENES:
Channel 1: Sitcom News Segment
Channel 2: Political Drama
Infomercial: Smack the Rich
Channel 3: Coming of Age News Segment
Channel 4: Horror
Carianna Julisa
Mejia-Hernandez
Tien Tran
Noelyanie Vega
Infomercial: Hickory Dickory Dock
Channel 5: Drama
Channel 6: Telenovela
This show runs approximately 75 minutes with a 20 minute talk-back directly following the performance.
WYSH PROGRAM STAFF AND DESIGN TEAM:
Co-Facilitators ................................................. Diana Khổng & Monica Risi
Production Manager ....................................................... Kevin McGerigle
Stage Manager ...................................................................Grace Donnelly
Audio Designer .............................................................................. Alex Peak
Lighting Designer ......................................................................... Ellie Melzer
Lighting Assistant ..................................................... Alyssa Swible-Martinez
Audio Assistant .................................................................... Stella Chinchilla
Production Assistant ................................................................ Angel Seiffert
This program is supported in part by
SPECIAL THANKS TO...
Tanya Alfaris, Elizabeth Grajales, and Nia Guzman from the Worcester community organizations Seven Stars and Project Priceless. We are also grateful for the participation of Emiliee Walker and Lyly Nguyen.
Land Acknowledgement: We acknowledge the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Nipmuc Nation on which we are working and performing. For more info, visit native-land.ca.
